Supplemental spending bill includes money for pay raises

Thursday

May 31, 2007 at 12:01 AMMay 31, 2007 at 9:12 AM

SPRINGFIELD -- The Illinos House voted 62-54 late Wednesday for a supplemental spending plan that includes money for legislative pay raises and long-awaited school construction projects, including one in Rochester.

Adriana Colindres

SPRINGFIELD -- The Illinos House voted 62-54 late Wednesday for a supplemental spending plan that includes money for legislative pay raises and long-awaited school construction projects, including one in Rochester.

Two dozen school districts have been waiting for more than three years for money they were promised through the school construction program. But state government has failed to fund it.

Rochester, for instance, has been waiting on $10 million from the state.

Among the other components of the supplemental spending plan, which now goes to the Senate for consideration, is money for Line of Duty Compensation, money given to families of Illinois military personnel who are killed in the line of duty. The benefit is about $270,000 per family.